I worked in a fast-growing high tech company, and it was all fun and games until the CEO said, “Hey, I’m selling the company.” I only got to tell one person, my friend Diane, because Diane and I had to plan the employee communications strategy. “So anyway, Diane,” I told her, “I don’t know how to tell you this, but the company is going to be sold.”

“Well, now I know what my weekend entails,” she said. It was Friday afternoon. “Fetal position, in the bed, with Oreos.” We laughed our heads off, and I don’t think either of us laughed again for three months.

Losing your job is no picnic. Coming back to work after a period of unemployment is hard, too, and so is getting back into the workforce when you’ve been home raising kids or tending to a family member. All of it is hard. We are trained to think about what we don’t have — years of experience, or long lists of certifications, or some other left-brain metric that has zip-all to do with anything on the actual job once you get it. But most of us have drunk a lot of dogma-flavored Kool-Aid over the years. We start to believe that we are lacking, that our job search will be hard, or that we’re going to be stuck forever doing something we don’t like because it’s too hard to do anything else.

When we are in transition, it can be hard to even think about what to do next, much less to act on it. It’s a confusing and frustrating time for most of us. We know that eventually the clouds will part, but when? We don’t know how to proceed. Ironically, it’s in the time of greatest confusion that most of the learning happens, but that doesn’t make being stuck any easier while we’re experiencing it.

Liz Ryan is a former Fortune 500 HR executive and the CEO of Human Workplace, an online community and consulting firm focused on reinventing work and career education. She is working with the Denver Post to bring the best expert advice on work place issues and tips to improve your career. Note: Liz Ryan was selected for her expertise, but her opinions are solely her own. We are not endorsing or advocating her business.